Indeed Everywhere: How to Leverage Social Media in Your Job Hunt

Looking for a job? Then you should know that employers are looking at you, too—or, at least 92% of them are, according to a survey on the role of social media in hiring today.

In fact—as Bryan Chaney, Indeed’s director of employer brand recently told The Street—it’s pretty much recruiting 101 these days: “One of the first things a hiring manager will do is look you up on their favorite social network.”

Some employers are even asking for Twitter handles and Instagram usernames as part of the application process.

As Bryan puts it: “The more we’re encouraged to bring our whole selves to work, the more the line between personal and professional on social media is increasingly blurred.”

For job seekers, this is not so much a cause for concern as caution. It’s not hard to find stories online about social media slips that are much more likely to harm rather than help you. But social media, when done right, is pure, passive advertising—a super shareable online billboard all about you that employers can find on their desktops or on their phones, which can be extremely beneficial.

So what are some tips for improving your social media presence?

First, take care of your personal brand. “Make sure your visible public profile is at least ‘business casual’—whether it’s a social site used for job search, or not,” says Bryan.

After all, employers aren’t just looking at your qualifications. They’re also looking at your username, your posts, and likely even the profiles of your followers. But Bryan points out that this cuts both ways—today job seekers also watching employers.

“One of the best ways to leverage social media for your job hunt is to monitor third-party sites that offer reviews and ratings from current and former employees” says Bryan.

Here you shouldn’t just look at what employees are saying. Look closely at the responses, Bryan recommends. Do the companies respond, and if so, what is their tone like?

“Are they listening and responding like humans? Companies that are interacting and invested in their reviews care a lot about their company culture and overall happiness of their people.”

For more tips on how to get the most out of your your social media presence, check out TheStreet.

But wait, there’s more…

If you haven’t heard already—the suburbs are back in style. As older millennials start families and take out mortgages, it seems that the pull of downtown bars and car-less commutes just isn’t what it used to be. Even so, don’t expect the suburbs to replace cities as job hubs any time soon, says Jed Kolko, chief economist at Indeed—jobs traditionally based in cities are growing faster than those based outside. But employers alert to the needs of millennials with families are increasingly marrying the best of urban and suburban life, such as choosing sites near public transportation and walkable suburban main streets. Get all the details at Bloomberg.

What do you get when you combine a spike in Canadian job searches after last November’s presidential election (and ensuing periodic spikes since) with Canada’s booming tech sector that will need to fill 216,000 positions by 2021? That’s right—according to new research from Indeed, many American tech workers are considering a move north. Indeed economist Daniel Culbertson notes that US tech workers are more likely than the typical US job seeker to search for a job in Canada. In particular, he cites data that shows that Canadian postings account for nearly 30% of all US job seeker clicks on tech postings outside the US in the six months ending in May 2017. That’s up from 23% in the same period the previous year. The top destinations? Ottawa and Toronto. See more at the Financial Post.

By now, we’ve all heard that robots are coming to take all of our jobs—but new research suggests that firms investing in smart, automated and self-teaching systems may actually be creating jobs rather than replacing them. Data from Indeed backs this up; we’ve seen a five-fold increase in the number of AI jobs advertised in the UK in the past three years. There’s just one problem: demand for AI roles outstrip supply, with 2-3 vacancies per qualified candidate. Mariano Mamertino, Indeed’s EMEA economist, suggests investing in education and the right skills needed to propel the industry forward as key to the AI sector’s growth. See Forbes for more.